The US IS Turning Up The Heat On Jihadists In Libya

The U.S. conducted a precision airstrike against Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Libya on June 13 near the town of Bani Walid, U.S. Africa Command announced on Thursday, the third airstrike against two different militant groups in the country in the recent months.

The AQIM militant killed in June 13 strike is the second so far this year after a March 24 strike took out high-ranking official Musa Abu Duwud.

AQIM isn't the only militant group the U.S. is targeting. A June 6 airstrike killed four ISIS-Libya fighters, also in Bani Walid.

The strikes were carried out in coordination with the Libyan government as part of the United States' stated mission to "degrade, disrupt, and destroy terrorist organizations and support stability in the region,' a mission the Trump administration restarted in September 2017.

It's worth noting that the new strikes in Libya come amid a major uptick in both airstrikes and troop levels in Somalia over the last year — an uptick that culminated in the death of a U.S. Army Green Beret there during a June 8 mission. Indeed, Army Green Berets are also waging a new ground war in Yemen. How long until AFRICOM's announcements of Libya strikes are punctuated with news of a U.S. casualty there?

GREENBELT, Md. (Reuters) - A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant accused of amassing a cache of weapons and plotting to attack Democratic politicians and journalists was ordered held for two weeks on Thursday while federal prosecutors consider charging him with more crimes.

Attorneys for the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America have filed a lawsuit against Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump asking the court to recognize the citizenship of an Alabama woman who left the U.S. to join ISIS and allow she and her young son to return to the United States.

U.S. soldiers surveil the area during a combined joint patrol in Manbij, Syria, November 1, 2018. Picture taken November 1, 2018. (U.S. Army/Zoe Garbarino/Handout via Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States will leave "a small peacekeeping group" of 200 American troops in Syria for a period of time after a U.S. pullout, the White House said on Thursday, as President Donald Trump pulled back from a complete withdrawal.

With a legal fight challenge mounting from state governments over the Trump administration's use of a national emergency to construct at the U.S.-Mexico border, the president has kicked his push for the barrier into high gear.

On Wednesday, President Trump tweeted a time-lapse video of wall construction in New Mexico; the next day, he proclaimed that "THE WALL IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION RIGHT NOW"

But there's a big problem: The footage, which was filmed more than five months ago on Sep. 18, 2018, isn't really new wall construction at all, and certainly not part of the ongoing construction of "the wall" that Trump has been haggling with Congress over.

A group comprised of former U.S. military veterans and security contractors who were detained in Haiti on weapons charges has been brought back to the United States and arrested upon landing, The Miami-Herald reported.

The men — five Americans, two Serbs, and one Haitian — were stopped at a Port-au-Prince police checkpoint on Sunday while riding in two vehicles without license plates, according to police. When questioned, the heavily-armed men allegedly told police they were on a "government mission" before being taken into custody.